About 40 people, including past and present students, tutors, kaumatua and artists from both sides of the harbour, turned out to urge Mr Binney to rethink his plans.
Diploma graduate Leona Kenworthy said she was one of 65 students who were waiting to start a degree course they had believed was coming to Rawene.
She was "bitterly disappointed", and might not have begun studying arts at Rawene if she had known she had no chance of completing a degree.
"It's like you've got halfway through your education, and then it drops off the edge of a cliff," she said.
Axing the certificate would affect the number of students wanting to take the diploma, because it served as a feeder for those without the confidence to enrol directly for the two-year course.
Sue Daly, the founder of arts tuition in the Hokianga, said the Rawene course offered support and encouragement that was unavailable elsewhere.
Many students would struggle if they had to transfer to another campus, she said.
Mr Binney told the meeting changes in government funding rules were forcing NorthTec to make some hard decisions.
"We can't keep running programmes which don't have enough students to make then worthwhile," he said.
It was possible the students had been told a degree course was coming, but it had never been official NorthTec policy.
Setting up a degree course was not as simple as having good tutors and a group of students ready to start.
It would have to approved by the NZQA and meet funding rules, which included proving it was sustainable and would lead to employment outcomes. And with only a certain amount of funding available, establishing a degree course in Rawene would require cuts somewhere else.
Mr Binney took exception to the claim that the organisation was "only about money".
"When this institution wasn't making any money there was hardly any education at this campus. For this campus to thrive, NorthTec has to thrive," he said.
He put the onus back on the Rawene community to channel its passion into helping NorthTec "get over the barriers," and providing evidence that a degree course would be viable.
One of the ideas to come out of the meeting was to allow Hokianga students to enrol in the degree at Kerikeri but do some of their studio work at Rawene.
Many Rawene students specialise in 3D (sculpture), however, while from next year Kerikeri will focus on print-making and painting.
In any case the degree course will be discontinued in Kerikeri once the last of the current students have graduated in two years' time.
Mr Binney said he was not surprised by the strength of the reaction from Rawene. The Hokianga had a strong arts community that which was vocal and organised, he said.
It was his first visit to Rawene since the consultation document was released earlier this year. The purpose of his visit was to give the community a chance to express their concerns to his face and help them understand the constraints NorthTec was under.
Mana Party leader Hone Harawira has also entered the fray, writing to Mr Binney, urging the reinstatement of the certificate and approval of the degree course that students had reportedly been assured was coming as long ago as 2009. "If that is the case, then I suspect NorthTec may have a major public relations and marketing disaster on its hands," Mr Harawira wrote.
